e
brought down many of the trees. On the right, opposite to the
Wilderness, there is an orchard, the subject of much legend. One popular
story is that this orchard formed the subject of a bequest to "St.
John's College," and that the testator, being an Oxford man, was held by
the Courts to have intended to benefit the College in his own
University. As a matter of prosaic fact, the orchard originally belonged
to Merton College, Oxford, being part of the original gift of their
founder, Walter de Merton, and it was acquired by St. John's College by
exchange in the early years of the nineteenth century.

The long walk terminates in a massive gate with stone pillars,
surmounted by eagles. Outside and across the road is the Eagle Close,
used as the College cricket and football field.

The visitor in returning should cross the old bridge, thus getting a
view of the Bridge of Sighs, and re-enter the College by the archway on
the left.

[Illustration: The Gatehouse: St John's College]

CHAPTER II

SOME INTERIORS

The visitor has been conducted through the College without pausing to
enter any of the buildings. We now retrace our steps to describe these
parts of the College open to inspection. It must be understood that
during a great part of the year the inspection of these interiors is
subject to the needs of a large resident Society, and as a rule it is
best to inquire at the gate for information as to the hours when these
parts of the College are open.

_The Chapel._

The present Chapel was built between the years 1863 and 1869, from the
designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott; it was consecrated by the Bishop of
Ely, 12th May 1869. As we approach it we see on the right the outline of
the old Chapel, which had served the College and the Hospital which
preceded it for something like six hundred years. This former Chapel was
a building quite uniform and simple in appearance, filling the whole of
the north side of the Court. Originally built to serve the needs of the
Hospital of St. John, it was considerably altered when the College was
founded. Side Chantries were then, or shortly afterwards, added. In
early times a good deal of the life of the College centred in the
Chapel, in addition to its uses for worship. It was regarded as a place
in which the Society was formally gathered together. In it the statutes,
or rules for the government of the Society, were read at